What to watch ahead of the Big East men’s basketball season

With the Big East conference season beginning this week, it could be awhile before the UConn men’s basketball team plays another Quad One game.

The league has only collected eight such wins so far and half of them have come from the Huskies, who made it through one of the program’s toughest nonconference schedules ever with a 10-1 record, going 4-1 in Quad One opportunities despite injuries. Their next Quad One game, as the NET rankings sit through Dec. 13, won’t come until they make what has been a daunting trip to Newark, N.J., to meet Seton Hall on Jan. 13.

“We knew that we had to come through, we talked about it as a team that we needed to come in with the best NET that we could come in with,” coach Dan Hurley said, knowing the 6-game gauntlet against high-major opponents would be the best chance to bolster UConn’s NCAA Tournament resume come March. “We had a chance to get five Quad One games and one Quad Two game, and we went 4-1 and 1-0 in Quad Two. So yeah, there was a lot of pressure on us in the nonconference to come through and we were able to do it.”

UConn, No. 8 in the NET, opens Big East play in Hartford on Tuesday against Butler, which outlasted Providence in a double-overtime shootout to tip-off league play on Saturday.

A look at the top storylines around the league so far:

Biggest surprise: Seton Hall

Seton Hall was picked to finish last in the Big East Preseason Coaches Poll. Yet the Pirates, in Year Four under Shaheen Holloway, will come into league play at 10-1, with as many wins as they had incoming transfers after a disastrous 7-25 season where they went 2-18 in the Big East.

Other than UConn, Holloway’s team is the only one in the league with multiple Quad One victories after beating NC State to start its trip to the Maui Invitational and later winning a true road game in decisive fashion at Kansas State. The Pirates’ only loss came on Day Two in Maui, a two-point defeat at the hands of the eventual Maui champions, USC. They closed nonconference play with a third high-major victory in a New Jersey battle against Rutgers.

Pitino still figuring things out at St. John’s

Rick Pitino and the Johnnies, 6-3 overall with all three losses coming in Quad One opportunities against Alabama, Iowa State and Auburn, are still figuring out their highly-talented – and highly-compensated – roster.

Pitino initially said Ian Jackson, a highly-touted recruit out of The Bronx who transferred in from North Carolina, would be his point guard. Then he said the point guard position was “totally done in basketball” and that his team would embrace going positionless before pivoting to Stanford transfer Oziyah Sellers at the position and then Dylan Darling, from Idaho State. He went back to Jackson on Saturday against Iona, which was only the Red Storm’s second game since Nov. 26.

Down to No. 22 in the AP poll after starting the season at No. 5, Pitino has plenty of time to get things rolling before the first matchup with the Huskies at Madison Square Garden Feb. 6.

Fall from grace

Creighton, picked to finish third in the league’s preseason poll, had an unfortunate start to its season. The Bluejays (5-5) were blown out by Gonzaga and, two games later, lost preseason third-teamer Jackson McAndrew to a season-ending foot injury. Leaning on Iowa transfer Josh Dix as its leading scorer, Creighton comes into Big East play after losing four of its last six, including a home game to Kansas State, and without any victories in Quad One or Two.

Shaka Smart chose to zig when the rest of the country zagged, and his insistence on avoiding the transfer portal has not aged well for Marquette (5-6). The Golden Eagles, No. 99 on KenPom, are the league’s lowest-ranked team in the NET at No. 166 and don’t have a win outside of Quad Four.

Sleepers: Butler, Georgetown

Butler, No. 46 in the NET with a Quad One win over Virginia, could end up being a bubble team behind Finley Bizjack and Michael Ajayi when Selection Sunday rolls around. Georgetown brought in talent for Year Three under Ed Cooley and picked up a Quad One win over Clemson early, but has been without 7-foot-1 center Vince Iwuchukwu since mid-November due to an undisclosed medical procedure and has since lost games to Dayton (OT), Miami and North Carolina.

Unproven: DePaul, Villanova, Providence, Xavier

Of this foursome, there is only one victory in Quad One or Two and it belongs to DePaul for its road win at Wichita State to complete nonconference play. The Blue Demons, in Year Two under Chris Holtmann, are also the only Big East team outside of Marquette with a loss in Quad Three or Four, falling to Buffalo in decisive fashion on their home court.

Villanova, in Year One of the Kevin Williard era, has seen all eight of its wins come in Quad Four but has only two losses to good teams in BYU and Michigan. The Wildcats are the league’s third-best team by KenPom’s metrics, where they rank No. 33, and have a measuring stick opportunity to close nonconference play against Wisconsin on Friday.

Picked fourth in the league’s preseason poll, Providence is in better shape after tying its school record for losses with a disappointing 12-20 campaign in Year Two under Kim English. Jason Edwards and Jaylin Sellers lead five players averaging double-figure scoring, but the Friars’ defense proved it has a ways to go in Saturday’s double-overtime loss at Butler.

Richard Pitino’s first Xavier team, picked eighth in the preseason, didn’t get off to the best start with a 19-point loss to Santa Clara at the Cintas Center in its third game of the season. But the Musketeers came a shot away from beating Georgia and have since captured high-major victories against West Virginia and Cincinnati. They’ll host UConn on New Year’s Eve.